Home Town Restaurant Giant Still Serving Community After 25 Years

Jim Mellody and his family moved from Pennsylvania to Florida in 1971. Mellody tried numerous restaurant ideas before hitting on the concept of a family friendly Irish pub in 1985. Beef O’Brady’s was born. So how did he come up with the name? “People love to ask me why in the world our sports bar is named Beef O’Brady’s,” Shawn Mellody said. Like any good son, Jim Mellody named his restaurant after his mother. “The restaurant was originally suppose to be a steak house kind of place but then my dad discovered buffalo wings and he decided to change it,” said Melissa Massaro, Mellody’s daughter.

Beef O’Brady’s and the Mellody family have been a part of the Brandon community for over 25 years. Melissa Massaro said she and her two brothers, Jim Jr. and Shawn have been a part of the Brandon community their whole lives. They also still call the original Beef O’Brady’s home. Their father taught them the importance of being a part of the community and giving back to it whenever they could. “My dad had a satellite television installed at the restaurant because a ball player from Brandon High School got on the Boston Red Sox and he wanted his parents to be able to watch their son’s games,” Jim Mellody Jr. said.

About five years ago, the Mellody family asked Pat Kinnell to come on aboard and help the restaurant get more involved with various school and sporting events in Brandon and the surrounding communities. “We go around to the different ball parks in the community every weekend and hand out gift certificates to people because being a part of the community is very important to us,” Kinnell said.

Kinnell and the Mellody family hope that all of the 250 Beef O’Brady’s restaurants that are part the franchise keep the neighborhood feel that the original Beef’s created and they will continue to support the communities they call home. The original Beef O’Brady’s restaurant is located at 210 S. Kings Ave.

Libby is a writer for The Osprey Observer/The Christian Voice. She started as an intern in 2009 and upon finishing her internship, she was asked to stay on as a permanent writer for both papers. Libby lives in Brandon with her two rescue dogs, Olive and Bogey.